feature Are You There God? It's Me, Manga - Oncourse

Are You There God? It's Me, Manga"Despite same-gender main characters,gender stereotypes are usuallymaintained."^ In Gravitation, for example,Eiri is the dominant "male " character: heseduces Shuichi, who is much lessexperienced. Emotional Shuichi is drawn asa child, and is referred to as both "a littlepet" and a "blushing bride." Shuichi mayplay the stereotypical female role in therelationship, but female readers are not tiedto the role by gender: "what distinguishes[boys' love] from traditional romances isthe idea that the two male leads start off associal equals. Female readers can identifywith either hero."Little else in boys' love breaks withconventions of the romance genre, and thisis another source of its appeal. The danceof indecision, doubt, and denial betweenthe protagonists resembles the courtshipsof Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in JaneAusten's Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyreand Mr. Rochester in Charlotte Bronte'sJane Eyre. ' Boys' love narratives are notbogged down in real-life consequences orissues. Rather, they are escapist romances:"the lack of strictly realistic issuescontributes to the appeal. These books areappealing for many of the same reasons thatprose romance novels are attractive. . .theyfocus on relationships.' The protagonists'homosexuality is not the issue, theirromance is: "[clharacters are frequently inlove with that person only and don'tconsider themselves gay or lesbian. Thetopic of how the characters identify theirsexuality in most cases is not discussed.'In Gravitation, Shuichi tells Eiri that hedidn't fall in love with him "because you're aguy or anything it was a purely emotionalteaction." In Hisaya Nakajo's Hana Kimi, agay character muses, "Unrequited love. Iknow it well." If one character will not lovethe other because he will not accept hishomosexuality, the story focuses on thedrama of unrequited love, not the drama ofcoming to terms with one's sexualorientation.Interestingly, this lack of focus onsexuality may assist readers in identifyingtheir own sexuality. Since boys' love iswritten for girls, they are free tocontemplate a same-sex romance that is notexclusively between males. In manga,gender issues are not portrayed as a coreissue, and "most teen readers who select abook with gender-variant characters are notlooking for a manifesto on gender or genderangst. Instead, readers seek a mirror of theirown feelings ot experiences to relate to andhelp them undetstand the world aroundthem." As gay characters appear in youngadult fiction as secondary charaaers, oreven main characters whose sexuality is notthe book's focus, the message of tolerancefot all orientations becomes more assumedand, as a result, more effective: Cart andJenkins note that books such as theseassume a "melting pot of sexual and genderidentity."^'' As Shuichi's friend Hiro tellshim in Gravitation, "It doesn't matter thatEiri-san is a guy because you love him inthe deepest way of all, as a person." Boys'love protagonists leam not to resist theirfeelings, no mattet how confusing they are.This demonstrates that it is acceptable toexperience more complex feelings about arelationship than a hetero normative viewwould expect. Hinako Takanaga's LittkButterfly, for example, is a straightforwardromance, without any discussion ofhomosexuality. Boy meets boy and, after alittle confusion, they fall in love. Thoughinitially confused by Nakahara's advances,Kojima relents: "I don't really undetstandit, but I like you, too." In Kill Me, Kiss Me,Tae Im disguises herself as a boy to becloser to her crush, Kun, at a boys' school.Tou^ boy Ga-Woon is attracted to her, or"him": "I can't help it. I can't get [h]im outof my head. Do-do you think I -1 could beturning.. gay?! ' Ga-Woon is frightenedand confused, but he "can't help it"—he hasto go with his feelings. In Only the RingFinger Knows, Wataru's emotions similarlyovertake him: "I don't even understandmyself. All I know is that I love Kazuki."Confusion is acceptable in these situations.Identides may not be clear cut, but love is.Channeling theMasculine and theFeminineOne of the most powerful messages ofgender bending and boys' love manga is thatit is empowering to channel both themasculine and feminine; to accept one's fullidentity, no matter how confusing orcomplex it is. James Welker describes theboys' love reader as "an exemplary femalewho can negotiate successfully both genderswithout being constrained by either." As J.D. Ho points out, "what girl hasn't wantedto have the privileges and the opportunitiesafforded the other gender?" Genderbendingmanga often comes from acharacter's "desire to change circumstancesimposed by cultute and custom."Sometimes a girl just has to be a boy to getwhat she wants. WJuliet and Kill Me, KissMe both feature protagonists who dress upas the other gender to infiltrate boys' andgirls' schools in order to get close to a crush.Adopting another gender gets the charaaerswhat they want. In Kill Me, Kiss Me TaeIm declares, "I don't care! I can be a boy or agirl for you, Kun! Somehow. . .I'm gonnamake you mine!" The power of movingbetween two genders comes from the abilityto accept a more complex gender than mostpeople are socialized to do. In Gravitation,Eiri is attraaed to Shuichi because Shuichidoes not worry about being gay. "1 can't helpbeing in love," he says simply. Eiri admiresthis: "[Y]ou can fall in love and not wotryabout sexuality." By not questioning hisdesires, Shuichi enjoys more freedom thanothers. Boys' love readers enjoy this freedomas well, because the stories offer a safe placeto try on different identities.Boys' love readers are even free toenvision a gender outside of theI Young Adult Library Services I Summer 2oog